1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of production of carbon-free alternative energy sources, transportation of gases, and aircraft design, and more particularly to a system, method and apparatus employing a specially-designed airship for transporting hydrogen from where it is generated, in a preferred embodiment via geothermal- or wind-powered electrolysis, to where the hydrogen is needed as an alternative energy source. Alternative embodiments of the invention include applications for economical transportation of cargo and passengers, as well as for transporting water to help recharge areas that are adversely impacted by the depletion of traditional glacial and snowpack sources.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In Freedom from Mid-East Oil, a book co-authored by the inventor, the case is made for the proposition that “Humanity now stands at the pinnacle of the Hydrocarbon Age, in which energy is developed by burning . . . hydrocarbons. [ . . . ] Hydrocarbons powered all of the advances of the Industrial Age. However, our hydrocarbons of choice—from coal and, eventually, to oil and gas—are wreaking devastation on the ecosystem. Moreover, their dwindling supply makes this form of energy increasingly less viable.”
Accordingly, “the most important domestic and foreign policy challenge [we face] is achieving energy efficiency and independence from Middle East oil—and ultimately all imported oil. [ . . . ] Oil production is at 99% of full capacity, and . . . increased demand by China, India, and other developing nations will devour any surplus caused by U.S. efficiency measures or economic downturn, keeping oil prices relatively high. From now on, the global demand for oil will grow faster than production capacity . . . . The only nations somewhat protected from economic hardships will be those that take definitive action to achieve energy independence from fossil fuels.”
“The hydrogen economy is the only reliable long-term solution to the energy and climate crises confronting civilization. There is now no other technology option that can safely produce clean energy to power transportation systems and our stationary infrastructure to sustain current levels of global prosperity, let alone increase these levels to sustain our fellow planetary citizens.”
It is widely known that hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, and one of the most abundant on Earth, found in numerous materials including water, natural gas and biomass. In its molecular form, hydrogen can be used directly as a fuel—for example, to drive a vehicle or heat water—or indirectly to produce electricity for industrial, transport and domestic use. The huge advantage that hydrogen has over other fuels is that it is non-polluting since primarily the only by-product of its combustion is water.
Currently, the most common method for producing hydrogen is via the catalytic steam reforming of methane to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide; and then further reforming the carbon monoxide to produce additional hydrogen, if required. However, natural gas is not a renewable source of fuel, and the steam reforming process to make hydrogen ultimately contributes to the worldwide increase in global emissions of carbon dioxide. Accordingly—although (except for unique conditions as described herein) it is currently more costly—the most promising method of producing hydrogen in the long-term is the electrolytic splitting of water (electrolysis), in which an electric current is passed through water, decomposing it into hydrogen at the negatively charged cathode and oxygen at the positive anode. If the electricity used to split the water is generated from a renewable source such as solar, wind, biomass, wave, tidal, geothermal or hydropower, then there is the potential to sustainably produce hydrogen in a non-polluting manner.
At unique locations where natural geologic or climatic conditions make it possible to economically use such renewable sources to produce electricity, the feasibility of inexpensively producing hydrogen in a non-polluting manner is being demonstrated. For example, the Big Island of Hawaii currently uses geothermal energy to produce more than 15% of its electricity and has the potential of generating 100% if it determines to do so. Hawaii has also successfully demonstrated the use of wind-generated power, and recently approved creating a demonstration project to show the technological and economic feasibility of using excess geothermal power produced during non-peak hours to create hydrogen from water, using electrolysis. This demonstration project, along with a similar project that is being undertaken in Iceland, reveal the potential for using our vast geothermal resources—a clean, renewable, continuous and reliable energy resource produced by tapping the heat stored in the Earth's crust—to produce massive quantities of hydrogen at a far lower cost and reduced environmental impact than by any other process.
However, these places where natural conditions favor the most economical access to such renewable sources for producing hydrogen in a non-polluting manner are not commonly situated in the same location where the largest demand occurs. For example, even on the Island of Hawaii itself, there are significant discrepancies between the location of the major power generators, approximately 85% of which according to a 2006 study conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, are concentrated on the eastern side of the Island, versus the locus of the Island's major population and energy consumption requirements, which occurs on its western side.
This challenge of physical separation between the location where hydrogen can be most economically produced from renewable energy sources such as geothermal, wind, wave, tidal or hydropower, and the places where it is (or is likely to be) most severely needed, is typical across the U.S. as well as globally. Accordingly, in order for this low-cost, carbon-free energy alternative to be meaningful beyond the limited number of places where, as an example, molten rock and superheated water and steam occur relatively close to the Earth's surface, will require an improved means for transporting the gas from these geologically ideal production sites to where the hydrogen is most needed as an alternative energy source, but without using high-powered transmission lines or a vast network of hydrogen gas pipelines. Similar needs exist with respect to the natural conditions that favor wind generation; or areas that favor solar, wave, tidal or hydropower-based generation. In each of these cases, nature has created features that favor comparatively low cost, clean electricity generation, the current from which can be used to electrolyze hydrogen from water. Since the technologies for creating, storing, condensing and utilizing hydrogen are well known and widely available, what is missing is a system and method of efficiently and safely transporting the hydrogen from where these natural conditions occur to where there exists a market need for this alternative energy resource.
This need for an improved method to deliver hydrogen from the place where it can be most economically produced with the least adverse environmental consequences to the place where it is needed is emphasized by a paper entitled “The Future of the Hydrogen Economy: Bright or Bleak.” Authored by Swiss scientists, B. Eliasson, U. Bossel and G. Taylor. This April 2003 paper (revised in February 2005) analyzes the energy needed to deliver hydrogen using a number of different methods, and concludes that the energy needed to package and deliver the gas to end users would consume most of hydrogen's energy.
In it, the authors write that “hydrogen, like any other commercial product, is subject to several stages between production and use. [ . . . ] Whether generated by electrolysis or by chemistry the gaseous or liquid hydrogen has to undergo these market processes before it can be used by the customer. [ . . . ] For reasons of overall energy efficiency, packaging and transport of hydrogen should be avoided if possible. Consequently, hydrogen may play a role as local energy storage medium, but it may never become a globally traded energy commodity. [ . . . ] The analysis shows that transporting hydrogen gas by pipeline over thousands of kilometers would suffer large energy losses. Moreover, in practice, the demands on materials and maintenance would probably result in prohibitive levels of leakage and system costs. Furthermore, the analysis shows that compression or liquefaction of the hydrogen, and transport by trucks would incur large energy losses.”
This is the commonly held perception today, and demonstrates the long-standing need for the system, method and apparatus of the present invention.